hi, readers!
sorry i'm late. this one was a little harder for me for some reason, probably because i'm not the biggest fan of augusta tower.
ah well, i hope it's okay. next chapter should come in the next few days so i can get caught up.
this one is a little more canon-heavy, but chapter 3 has lots of Hope so stay tuned.~
enjoy!
aeonis infinitus
chapter 2
"That was a lot of work for one lousy access key."
The "key from another time" that Mog insisted they needed to fetch was merely an access key from another incarnation of Augusta Tower, somewhere in the future. The short quest to find the key that would unlock the circuits of the board they needed to access was tedious, though it served to further acquaint the human duo and their moogle sidekick to the place where, according to Caius, they were to be "entombed as a consequence" of "learning the forbidden history". Those words lingered in the shadows of Noel's mind, sneering at him in his trepidation.
The panel glowed, accepting the identification card, and the sound of a mechanism springing into action resonated from above them. In tandem, the hunter and ex-l'Cie looked up to watch a circular platform at the tower's center begin to move.
A shock of familiar blond hair, discolored by the ambient glow of the "neon" (another unfamiliar word that Serah spouted like scientists' jargon; to him they were just bright) lighting that distracted and damaged his attuned eyes, seized his subconscious attention – he was turning from watching the central elevator's descent before he knew why, a sudden spike in his pulse quite honestly confusing the hell out of him.
"- that Alyssa?" Serah was saying, and he only realized she was speaking when the roar in his ears subsided, attributing the adrenaline rush to exhaustion and shock from spotting the young woman just yards away in a place that he found nearly inhospitable to humans (honestly, how anyone could live or work cooped up in a tower like this, with only circuits and data and that strange glow for company, was beyond him). Not to mention –
"What's she doing in this time period?"
Noel looked over. Serah was doing that thing again, propping her gloved thumb on her upper lip as she considered the finer points of spacetime theory. He had long decided he would leave such thinking to her, or if they were able, Hope and his team in the Academy; after all, they were capable of so much more than a technologically-incompetent hunter hailing from the end of days. For example, he wouldn't know where to even begin building a fal'Cie…
…the scream of a woman they had passed somewhere behind him sending chills down his spine, and he whirls, and then they are standing back to back fending off winged monstrosities that had been flesh and blood like them not seconds ago. That one there, it looks smaller than the rest, and maybe that's the one the other woman had been crying for, a child torn from its mother and cursed to such a fate.
A crystal beast swings its spiked arm towards his jaw in a vicious uppercut, and Noel blocks its onslaught with crossed swords, stabbing forward with the left straight into its cursed heart. The sky weeps its sorrows, the falling droplets glistening crimson with billboards and alerts in the city that shone in the dead of night more brightly than the sun, and he is sure Serah weeps too from the way her forearm sweeps briefly and angrily across her face; or perhaps the water and sweat cloud her vision, making it impossible to see the threats before them.
And so time wanders on.
Shaking himself free of such thoughts, the brunette lifted his chin and ignored the way the corners of his eyes protested the brightness around them. "She does look like Alyssa, but it can't be her," he said bluntly, refusing to get their hopes up. If he was at least somewhere within the range of right about the path they had followed up and down the timeline, their young friend would have been long dead by this year. But he couldn't deny the nagging impression that he was looking at Alyssa, not some… impossible representation of her formed of some unknown sorcery, mechanical or otherwise. Thus he decided. "Let's find out for sure."
Serah made a noise of agreement in the back of her throat, and he led the way. Swords drawn in preparation for a security bot surprise attack, he advanced forward over the floating panel (it sagged under his weight, and he stiffened for a split-second before recalling the existence of such things as anti-gravity) and the suspended walkways, until he stood just behind "Alyssa".
The woman turned, mirror-like blue eyes swinging from him to his companion, and tilted her head slightly to the side, blonde almost-curls ruffling as she moved.
"Nice to meet you."
Her tone was eerily flat, and he felt the younger Farron beside him release a sigh of what could have been relief at her words – this confounded him before he remembered where and when they were. Their by-all-accounts ordinary friend showing up well into the future beyond her native era could only have been caused by a paradox; to find she was likely still safe and sound in her own time was definitely something to be relieved about.
"'Nice to meet you'?" Serah quoted, a delicate pink eyebrow quirked in thought as she turned to face him. "She doesn't know who we are. I guess she's not Alyssa after all."
"Alyssa?" the doppelganger enquired, looking at them oddly. Rather belatedly, Noel was hit with the realization that there was only one person he'd ever seen multiple incarnations of in different times, and that was…
No, he thought. Etro, please. Don't tell me you've 'blessed' Alyssa too; she doesn't deserve such a burden.
The strange Alyssa copy was still watching him beseechingly, and Noel rebalanced his stance, changing his lead foot from right to left. "We used to know a girl who looked like you, but that was a long time ago now."
For a moment, she froze – literally froze, as if time as it related to her had paused. And then she bowed, and with a friendly but plastic smile, noted "ah, my apologies. I must recalibrate my previous greeting."
Noel stared.
"It appears that you are acquainted with the Original," she continued, still in that curiously monotone voice.
Unsure how to respond, Noel blinked, his gaze torn from the young woman's copy as Serah shifted uncomfortably. He shared the sentiment – his uneasy feeling was only getting worse, along with his intense headache.
"Original?" he queried, almost before he had comprehended the fact that he had opened his mouth.
The carbon copy's gaze switched back to him, fixing him with an empty stare. "I am a duplicate of the Alyssa Zaidelle entity," she recited. "My design is based on her biophysical data." A friendly grin that obviously didn't reach her eyes spread across her face, and a heavy sensation settled in the pit of Noel's stomach. But before either of them could react, the girl…
she dissolved, fading into a mountain of transparent aqua cubes that roughly equated her size, he thought, before those cubes collapsed too, all but phasing into the floor beneath them.
His companion drew a sudden breath, not quite a gasp, which was all she could manage before "Alyssa" reappeared a ways away, across the gap that separated the inmost ring from the ring on which they stood. She was next to the elevator, now, perfectly emulating her Original's demeanor with a hip cocked and her arms behind the small of her back.
"She's a machine," Serah said quietly.
Noel turned to face his companion, reading a look of partial comprehension on her visage. He, however, was just as lost as before – that couldn't really explain everything, could it? But then, he shouldn't doubt the Academy's technical prowess. They had accomplished the impossible any number of times; he, from the dystopian future, should suck it up and take everything at face value.
However, he still yearned for understanding. Perhaps if they could get the real Alyssa and Hope to explain these 'duplicates', Noel might be somewhere closer to not drowning in the sea of everything he didn't know.
If they could even explain technology that hadn't been invented yet. And then he frowned – by asking, wouldn't they be the cause of the invention anyway? He was loath to take part in the creation of a closed-loop paradox (he knew that much at least), but he still wondered.
"A fabricated life-form," "Alyssa" corrected, but relented. "Or a living machine; the semantics are irrelevant."
The elevator jerked, and the semi-opaque force field encircling the round platform coalesced into existence. Alyssa's Duplicate didn't move as she controlled it, taking the ragtag group to the top floor; Noel had become desensitized to her soulless eyes upon learning of the truth of her creation. It was easy to just imagine her as another element of the sterilized scenery, devoid of humans – the Duplicate project also explained Serah's observation of the researchers' "lack of presence".
A sudden lurch jarred Noel from his thoughts, and he heard his partner let out a small "oh!" as she nearly tripped and fell. The platform had become unbalanced, the hunter realized, fumbling for the railing behind him – it shuddered as it rose, and even as he watched, the air around them seemed to thicken with dark ethereal mist.
"What's happening?"
Mog bobbed wildly, a startled "kupo!" escaping him as the disturbance around them wreaked havoc on his aerial balance.
Serah reached up for him and caught the moogle in her arms. "Is this a paradox?" she wondered, glancing at the immobile Alyssa duplicate.
"Go see what's happening," ordered a firm voice distorted by the static of a microphone or a recording. Noel started, a jolt in his pulse born of recognition sending adrenaline screaming through his veins.
I know that voice –
Serah stared past him, and Noel followed her line of sight as he turned, catching sight of a multitude of holographic panels glowing as they played back video footage.
"On it," a scientist standing behind Hope and to the right responds immediately, turning on one heel and striding off into the main expanse of the tower. A moment later, he is sent flying backwards, landing half on his side at the feet of the director and his assistant.
Alyssa lets out a shrill noise of fear. Squaring himself, a dark shadow passes over Hope's face. "What is this?" he bites out.
The camera angle changes.
A veritable army of machines, built by the Academy's own hands, stares down the two humans. Alyssa whimpers, sinks back behind Hope, as if he can protect her from what is surely to be their end.
To his credit, he tries.
He goes for his boomerang, but he moves barely an inch before a Dragoon opens fire on the measly duo – he flings his arms in front of his face in a vain attempt to withstand the barrage, but it is too late. It had always been too late.
Screams. The screen flashes bright – and the recording disappears.
"Hope-!" Serah's voice shrilled in concern.
Noel's chest was tight. They-
The telltale sound of the robotic Alyssa dissolving into data-cubes elicited a quick turn from the pair, the hunter reaching back to arm himself with his dual swords and Mog turning into the bow in Serah's hand. The data-cubes reformed into a horde of enemies, a mix of bots from around Augusta Tower that lurched forward without preamble.
Her hand delving into the small pouch on her right hip, Serah palmed a crystal that glimmered with a dim yellow sheen between her fingers. She stretched back and let it fly – the diminutive crystal bounced off of the "head" of an Orion, exploding in a shock wave of bright light that still made Noel's eyes water despite the number of times he had seen it. A chocobo sprang from the rift between spaces and beset the small droids with its sharp talons, letting out a vicious "wark!" of a war-cry as the battle began.
Fueling his onslaught with the hurricane of feelings (the majority of them unexpected) that resulted from the paradox footage of Hope's and Alyssa's deaths, Noel kept close to the ground, low in posture as the Orion swung horizontally to separate his head from his shoulders. He ducked even lower and pushed forward with his toes, swinging his right-hand sword in the pass to clip the mechanical monster's fragile, needle-like legs.
It evaded with a sidestep, firing its engines to dash across the platform directly towards Serah – an arrow released from her bow nearly clipped Noel's ear, but he leaned heavily to the right, knowing her aim was true as the whine of circuits behind him told of the "death" of another bot. Tarrying not, he leaped forward, in hot pursuit of the Orion as it made to cleave his companion across the chest. The Farron woman stumbled backwards, the bow in her left hand metamorphosing into a sword, but not quick enough and it looked as if the security robot's blade would connect –
But then Noel was there, sliding into place with his swords crossed, intercepting the swipe at the last possible moment. His arms strained against the force, sandals slipping against the frictionless surface of the elevator, and he gritted his teeth as he threw his all into fending off the attack.
A blade flashed in the corner of his vision, and Serah opened a gash in the synthetic armor of the massive robot, exposing sparking wires and pushing it off balance the slightest bit. It was all the traction Noel needed to push forward and finally send the Orion reeling; he channeled electricity through his fingers and into his smaller blade, lashing out and sinking the stabbing sword into the opening left by his rose-haired companion.
The pulse bounced from cord to cord within the machine, frying its internal circuitry and causing wisps of smoke to leak out through the holes and gaps in its plating. A well-placed kick from Noel to the center of its "chest" caused the hunk of metal to dissolve into data-cubes and then to nothing.
He turned. The chocobo was just sinking its beak for the final time into the other vespid soldier, the one that Serah hadn't picked off. It, too, disappeared, and the large bird let out a satisfied cry before dissipating into the void.
The crystal it left behind bounced against the lift, rolling to a stop next to Serah's shoe. She bent to pick it up, panting from the exertion of trying very hard not to die; Mog hovered nearby, his little clock-staff in hand.
"What the hell was that?" Noel growled, bequeathing of the blond-haired duplicate that had returned once they had dealt with the enemies. His form quivered with barely-contained energy, stemming both the winding down from the conflict and pent-up emotions from the paradox footage that he couldn't even begin to sort out (and why he was so emotional, he refused to address). Tanned hands tightened around the handles of his blades; he was too tense, too expectant of another assault, to sheathe them just yet.
"This was an effect of the paradox," the duplicate droned flatly. "You just witnessed an event that took place on this spot one-hundred and eighty-seven years ago."
Serah squinted through the paradoxical fog that still hadn't dissipated. "Wait a minute," she said softly. "So, you're saying the real Hope and Alyssa were murdered?"
"Yes. After the tower was completed." Duplicate Alyssa's face was expressionless as her blank eyes met Noel's and Serah's. "During the Proto fal'Cie development project, the artificial intelligence and humans came into conflict."
The hunter went cold. "The artificial intelligence killed them?" he asked. "Because they were in the way?"
So they were the harbingers of their own doom…
"I'm afraid so," the duplicate confirmed, a pawn of the AI along with everything else in the tower. And she dissolved once more.
They survived the second clash with a few new bruises to show for it. Alyssa's Duplicate was back again, but Noel and Serah ignored her for the moment; instead, Serah turned to him and looked up with saddened blue eyes. "Hope and the others were killed in this tower." The pink wisps of her side-ponytail wavered as she glanced at the Duplicate. "And then after they were dead, the AI took control of the Academy."
"The broken fal'Cie," Noel surmised right back, remembering shrill screams and rain, "was created by a broken artificial intelligence." He made a strangled noise of defeat, glancing away. "Humans were betrayed, and then they were wiped out."
Serah nodded glumly. "And the duplicates were mechanical puppets that were built to hide what happened."
Thunk. A metrodroid collided with the elevator platform. Alyssa was gone again.
They knew what came next.
"You two have seen it now," she said. "You've seen the forbidden history. People who know too much have to be buried."
And once more, she vanished. Noel and Serah both flinched backward, the former raising his blades and the latter reaching for Mog – but, a jolt and a click later, the elevator ground to a halt on a floor they didn't recognize.
"It stopped moving," Serah said. Her voice was desolate as her eyes took in their surroundings.
"Hm," Noel agreed. The shadow of a frown jerked at the corners of his lips. "Looks like they closed the door on us."
They fell silent for a moment.
The hunter turned. "Well, now we've seen the forbidden history," he said. "Does that mean we're stuck here for good?" What a place to die. To think we – I came this far, only to end up here.
"Do you remember what Caius said? In his memory, the next thing that happens is… we die."
Inwardly, Noel smiled humorlessly. Yeah, Serah, I remember. Caius never really leaves my mind, you know. Everything that's happened to me is because of him – everything good, and everything bad.
But rather than articulate his bitter thoughts, he confirmed aloud the suspicions he had had all along. "That's why he acted the way he did. As far as he was concerned, we were supposed to be dead." I know it wasn't him in Academia. I know that, whoever that was, he didn't feel like Caius. "He saw us two hundred years later, assumed it was a paradox and tried to get rid of us." He doesn't want me dead… back then, he wanted me to kill him. Back then...
He pushed those speculative thoughts away. There would be time later for dissecting his memories of Caius.
"But there's a way out," Serah stated hopefully. "If we can survive now, instead of dying, that will automatically change history." She smiled slightly. "We can change the future."
"Agreed." Somehow, we have to stop that proto-fal'Cie, and save Hope. (For some reason, he could feel his neck begin to flush.) "Alyssa and Hope's fate are in our hands. It's not over yet – not by a long shot."
Maybe their meddling would affect others' lives for the worse; maybe they would cause damage they never intended. Maybe they would eliminate entire futures from the timeline, like they had in the Yaschas Massif.
But Noel would do it. He would do whatever it took to ensure Hope's survival. He had to.